Paul Brians, Professor of English at Washington State
University, donated this collection to the WSU Libraries in 2003. Ben DeCrease
processed the collection in 2006-2007. The collection number was changed in 2009 from Cage 710 to SC 3.3.

Number of containers: 36
Linear feet of shelf space: 18
Approximate number of items: 1180

COLLECTION HISTORY

Paul Brians began collecting underground comix in the summer of 1967 when he
encountered a copy of Yellow Dog in the Petaluma, California Greyhound bus
depot newsstand. Their outrageous content and visual creativity altered the
definition of what comics could be, and comix were a major force in the 1960s
counterculture. Brians systematically ordered all the major comix that he could
identify for the next few decades, until the original publishers began to fade
from the scene with the death of the alternative marketplaces that had been
responsible for selling comix.

Expanding his interest in modern adult comics, Brians subscribed for several
years to Heavy Metal, the U.S. equivalent of Métal hurlant,
and those issues are included in this collection.

During the 1980s he did extensive research on nuclear war in fiction, and as
part of this process he built the world's most comprehensive collection of
fiction depicting nuclear war or its aftermath in the WSU Libraries. In
addition he built a modest but unique collection of comic books depicting
nuclear war, now included in this collection, though it is a quite distinct
collection of mostly mainstream titles. Background information about these
nuclear comics is available on Brians' Web site, Nuke Pop (http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/nukepop/).

COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

The Paul Brians Comics Collection contains a wide variety of common and rare
underground comix. Inspired by the controversial EC Comics of the 1940s,
artists of the late 1960s San Francisco counterculture community began
publishing uncensored comics dubbed "comix," with the "x" standing for X-rated.
With drug influenced and politically charged content, these new comix pushed
the boundaries in every respect, and within a year of the first major
publications in 1967, every head shop in the country was selling underground
comix. Early titles like Zap and the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers drew a
strong following and were reprinted many times over. For a while, the obscenity
and copyright infringement lawsuits brought against comics like Air Pirates
Funnies and Nasty Tales didn't seem to harm underground sales, but by the mid
1970s the "head shops" were disappearing and the remaining underground
publishing houses could no longer turn a profit. Coinciding with the birth of
punk music in 1977, the underground genre lost popularity as readers turned to
the upcoming trend of New Wave comics. Apart from the work of artists like
Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton, who continued to produce the same style of
comix after 1977 as they did at the peak of the movement, experimental and
uncensored comics from that time forward came to be known as "alternative
comics," and entries in this listing are labeled accordingly.

In addition to underground and alternative comics, this collection contains
many science fiction and fantasy comics, underground newspapers like the
East Village Other and the San Francisco Oracle, and a
significant number of comics pertaining to nuclear war. The latter collection
is identified in the guide by the term, "nuclear comics," and it
spans the years 1950-2004.

Comics contained in series 1 constitute the majority of the collection and
are stored in upright containers alphabetically. Series 2 contains comics too
large to be housed in standard boxes; items in this series are listed at the
end of this collection guide.

Air Pirates Funnies,
Dan O'Neill, Ted Richards, Gary Hallgren, and Bobby London. Sexually
explicit underground comix on the subject of the Military Industrial
Complex featuring Disney characters in compromising positions.
Production was halted after one printing of each issue due to a Disney
injunction. Number 1, 1971; San Francisco, CA: Air Pirates Collective.
Number 2, 1971; San Francisco, CA: Hell Comics. Underground comix.

All Girl Thrills,
Trina Robbins, Willy Mendes, and J. Wood. Berkeley, CA: The Print Mint.
Sexually explicit New Age comix. All Girl Thrills is notable as being
one of the first comics to be drawn entirely by women. 1971.
Underground comix.

American Splendor,
Harvey Pekar (author). Cleveland Heights, OH: Self-published.
Occasionally sexually explicit stories set in Cleveland from the life
of Harvey Pekar, each drawn by a different artist. A movie of the same
name starred Paul Giamatti as Harvey Pekar using material from this
long running series. Number 1, 1976; number 3, 1978; number 4, 1979;
number 5, 1980; number 6, 1981; number 7, 1982; number 8, 1983; number
9, 1984. Underground comix.

An Army of Principals,
Leonard Rifas. Princeton, WI: Kitchen Sink Enterprises. An alternative
comic history of the founding of the United States. 1976. Underground
comix.

26

Anarchy Comics,
multiple contributors. Berkeley, CA: Last Gasp. "Comix inspired by or
based on anarchist ideals." Issue one includes a comic by underground
artist, Gilbert Shelton. Number 1, 1978; number 2, 1979; number 4,
1987. Nuclear comics.

Best Buy Comics,
Robert Crumb. Collection of Robert Crumb comics drawn between 1977 and
1979, many of which were originally published in the Coevolution
Quarterly. Philosophy, politics, and social commentary. Contains
nudity. 1979. Underground comix.

The Cartoon History of the Universe,
Larry Gonick. San Francisco, CA: Rip Off Press, Inc. Educational
history comics beginning with the Big Bang in issue 1 and continuing
through ancient Greece in issue 6. Number 1, 1978; numbers 2-4, 1979;
number 5, 1980; number 6, 1981.

The East Village Other,
multiple contributors. New York, NY: The East Village Other, Inc.
Counterculture newsprint periodical containing comix, articles,
columns, and interviews. Underground comix.

156

Volume 4, numbers 1-5, 1968; numbers 6-7, 1969.

157

Volume 4, numbers 8-10, 12-13, 1969.

158

Volume 4, numbers 14-17, 1969.

10

159

Volume 4, numbers 18-20, 1969.

160

Volume 4, numbers 23-26, 1969.

161

Volume 4, numbers 27, 32-35, 1969.

162

Volume 4, numbers 36-40, 1969.

163

Volume 4, numbers 41-45, 1969.

164

Volume 4, numbers 46-47, 49-51, 1969.

11

165

Volume 4, number 52, 1969; volume 5, numbers 1-4, 1969.

166

Volume 5, numbers 5-7, 1970.

167

Volume 5, numbers 9-12, 1970.

168

Volume 5, numbers 14-17, 1970.

169

Volume 5, numbers 18-21, 1970.

12

170

Volume 5, numbers 22-24, 52, volume 6, number 1, 1970.

171

Volume 6, numbers 2-5, 1970.

172

Volume 6, numbers 6-9, 1971.

173

Volume 6, numbers 10-13, 1971.

174

Volume 6, numbers 14-17, 1971.

13

175

Volume 6, numbers 18-22, 1971.

176

Volume 6, numbers 23-26, 1971.

177

Volume 6, numbers 27-28, 30-31, 1971.

178

Volume 6, numbers 32-37, 1971.

179

Volume 6, numbers 38-42, 1971.

14

180

Volume 6, numbers 43-45, 1971; volume 7, number 1-3, 1972.

181

El Perfecto Comics,
multiple contributors. Berkeley, CA: The Print Mint. Benefit comic for
the Timothy Leary defense fund, established to free Timothy Leary, a
representative of the acid culture, from his imprisonment for
possession of a controlled substance. Contributors include Robert Crumb
and Gilbert Shelton. Contains nudity. 1973. Underground comix.

Erotica,
Vaughn Bodé. San Francisco, CA: Last Gasp. Full color comix containing
nudity that were originally published in The Monthly Cavalier Magazine
between April 1970 and June 1971. Volume 1, 1983. Underground comix.

Flamed-Out Funnies,
Willy Murphy (illustrator), Ted Richards, and Gilbert Shelton
(editors). San Francisco, CA: Keith Green. Compendium of Willy Murphy's
best strips published in the last seven years of his life. Number 1,
1975. Underground comix.

Greaser Comics,
George Di Caprio, Jim Janes, and R. Jaccoma. Violent and sexually
explicit comix about criminal life in the 1950s. Number 1, 1971; New
York, NY: Half-Ass Press. Number 2, 1972; San Francisco, CA: The Rip
Off Press. Underground comix.

230

Great Diggs of 77',
R. Diggs. San Francisco, CA: The Rip Off Press, Inc. Selection of the
cartoonist's political comix from 1977 that were originally published
in The Rip Off Comix Syndicate, The Berkeley Barb, and the Ag-Biz
Tiller. 1977. Underground comix.

Junkwaffel,
Vaughn Bodé. Sexually explicit comic series that continued after the
artist's death in 1975. Number 1, 1971; numbers 2-3, 1972; Berkeley,
CA: The Print Mint. Number 5, 1983; San Francisco, CA: Last Gasp.

The New Gravity
(advertisement), Kalman Ben Abraham and Gary Arlington. San Francisco,
CA: The San Francisco Comic Book Company. Oversized single page ad for
issue number 2 of The New Gravity. Two copies, 1970. Underground comix.

Surprise,
multiple contributors. Paris, France: Presses de la Bûcherie. Varied
violent and sexually explicit comics in French by both European and
American artists. Number 1-3, 1976. Underground comix.

Thoroughly Ripped,
Gilbert Shelton and Dave Sheridan. San Francisco, CA: The Rip Off
Press, Inc. Compilation of Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comix that
appeared in High Times and Playboy between 1974 and 1978. Contains
nudity. 1978. Underground comix.

Zap Comics,
Crumb, Wilson, Moscoso, Shelton, Griffin, Spain, and Williams. Perhaps
the most popular underground series of the era, Zap is a mix of
uncensored comix from artists who became leaders of the underground
scene. Violent and sexually explicit. Number 6, 1973; San Francisco,
CA: Apex Novelties. Number 7, 1974; Berkeley, CA: The Print Mint.
Underground comix.